In today’s Weekend Edition, excerpted from Get What’s Yours, you’ll discover just how much your lifetime benefits could be worth. And even better… it highlights some of the simple steps you can take to increase your monthly Social Security income.

First, we go to our old, tattered wallet and pull out our original government issue Social Security card. Yellowed and frayed, it is remarkable we still have it. Even more remarkable: There is no issue date!

“It’s true. Wealth is a burden,” said a man from Australia. “And when you give it to your children, it’s like putting a ball and chain on their legs.” Everything was fine. All week, we had been discussing how to build a big ball of wealth and how to shackle it onto our children. Then, on Saturday night, after dinner, we were outside, laughing, singing, enjoying ourselves. And then the police showed up. With two paddy wagons. Yes, dear reader, someone called the cops on us. We were just having a good time.

No follow through in stocks… no bounce in gold. The S&P 500 is at an all-time high. Gold is approaching its low for this cycle.
What useful information is there in this news? Probably none. So, we wrap our commencement address to the Class of ’14 (You can find parts I, II and III here, here and here.) Note that we do this a cappella – alone that is. We will find no allies. Neither on the left nor the right. Expensive education and cheap credit have done their jobs. No one wants to endanger his credit score or his security clearance.